


Radiating Warmth

by walkydeads



Series: Warmth [4]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Graduation, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 12:14:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4828769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkydeads/pseuds/walkydeads
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt 'you do when you're nervous'. Final part of this tumblr ask series.</p>
<p>Even though this series is complete, I accept prompts/requests pretty much all the time over at my tumblr, @tabletguardians.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Radiating Warmth

It’s graduation day, and Josh Washington is scared shitless.

 

This wouldn’t even be worth remarking on if Josh hadn’t dropped out of college two years ago and never looked back. But as it was, he wasn’t nervous because he was donning a cap and gown and collecting his own degree. In fact, he was much more nervous about what would happen after graduation.

The parties would happen, and Josh would be in his element then, but immediately after graduation, he’s going to his best friend Chris’ graduation dinner, which just so happens to have Chris’ entire extended family on the guest list. Even that isn’t especially noteworthy, though; Chris and Josh have been friends since third grade, and he’s spent more holidays and school breaks at Chris’ home than his own. He knows Chris’ grandparents and aunts and his kind of strange uncle and his multitudinous cousins, and he has already charmed the vast majority of them.

At it’s root, Josh’s issue is quite simple.

This is the first time he’ll be joining Chris’ family gathering as his boyfriend, instead of his best friend.

Chris’ mother and father were already well aware of their relationship status (his mother especially, after an awkward run in when Josh and Chris were getting a little too friendly as Josh sat on top of a still-running dryer she was coming down the basement stairs to check on) and seemed fine with it. And though his relatives all seemed to love Josh, he knew acutely well that things tended to change when one’s orientation deviated from the ‘norm’. Between kisses the night before, Chris had assured him that everything would be fine, but Josh still isn’t so sure.

He sits, twisting the graduation program in his hands and watching as everyone walks across the stage. Sam, Mike, Jess, a few people he knows from high school, Ashley, some strangers, Emily, Matt, some more strangers, someone Josh’d had freshman English with, and then Chris. Chris is a little red in the face as he crosses the stage, taking his degree and the dean’s hand with shaking fingers.

On his way down, he catches Josh’s eye and smiles, and it temporarily puts him at ease. But by the end of the ceremony, the program is torn to pieces in his hands.   
Everyone jumps up and cheers and tosses their graduation caps in the air, and Josh blocks it all out as he weeds his way through the crowd to find Chris. Eventually he does (can’t miss the hair) and wraps his arms around him, unthinking, pulling him close.

“I’m so proud of you,” he tells him.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” Chris responds, burying his nose in Josh’s neck. “I’ve hardly seen you in weeks.”

Josh pulls away and smiles, “That was your own fault, jackass. You’re the one that decided I was distracting you too much during finals week. I wasn’t even doing anything!”

Chris just shakes his head incredulously, “Just you being you is more than enough sometimes.”

And then, he’s leading Josh out of the auditorium. Everyone else is still finding each other, still meeting up and hugging and yelling congratulations. Their own personal brand of celebration requires a little more privacy.

They’re in Chris’ car making out before Josh realizes he’s still got the graduation program torn to pieces and balled up in his fist. He laughs, and shows Chris, who looks decidedly less than amused. In fact, if Josh had to put a name to it, he’d call the look on Chris’ face one of concern.

“You alright?” he says softly.

“Yeah,” Josh replies immediately, “Yeah I’m good. I’m a nervous wreck, but I’m okay.”

“You don’t need to be nervous,” Chris chides gently, pressing his forehead against Josh’s, “Everyone is gonna love you, just as much as I do. You don’t have to put on a show, I promise. We don’t have to act like just bros and we don’t have to aggressively be in their faces about it. We can just be us, and everything will be fine. And even if it’s not? We’ll still be ‘we’.”

Josh swallows, “Yeah,” he repeats. And then, “I took all of my meds today and everything. I’ve been sticking to it all week. I just… I want them to think I’m good enough, I don’t know.”

Chris melts, his eyes showing his compassion as he says, “Okay, well look. Some of my cousins know. And do you know what they’ve been asking me? How I got so lucky. Honestly, it’s a good question. Because I see you, how hard you’re trying to move past the rougher stuff in your life, how much you’ve wanted to feel better. And even working through what you are, you still have so much room left to love people. Even someone like me. It honestly blows my mind, sometimes”

Shuddering a little, Josh feels the tears welling in his eyes and can’t believe he’s turned into such a sap. But all the same, Chris’ words move him, and reach a place in him that no one else seems to be able to. At a loss for words, he nods, shoving the wadded up pieces of paper into the cupholder to be thrown away later.

In the doorway to Chris’ house that night, Chris links his fingers with Josh as he smiles and whispers, “They already love you. Don’t be nervous.”

Of course, Chris is right. The night goes off without a hitch, and by the end of it Josh is actually wondering why he was so eager for the approval of some of these people. They’re all incredibly nice, but some of them are just incredibly dry. He doesn’t tell Chris this, of course, even though there’s a good chance Chris feels the same way.

A few weeks later, he’s got an interview for principal photography on a film, and he’s running around like crazy to get his portfolio ready. He changes into his interview clothes and goes to brush his teeth when he notices Chris - who is already at a job of his own - has repurposed the torn up bits and pieces of his graduation program to spell out ‘I love you. Don’t be nervous.’ on the bathroom counter.

Josh nails the interview (and Chris later that night, but that’s another story for another time).


End file.
